I’m thrilled to announce that The Vault is officially live, with tickets now on sale for next month’s underground festival of performance, film and …party. Kindle’s glam-inspired rock operetta The Furies hits the capital for 12 performances between the 9th and 26th February, but we recommend that you come early in the run. Not least because Dave the Roadie  will be frisking and hustling entrants only during the first week. After that he disappears, awol, following a presumed bender – and for reasons known unto himself has to “leave the country, in a hurry”.

Following succesful try-outs in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Brighton the Old Vic Tunnels beneath Waterloo Station provides a fantastically atmospheric setting for The Furies. It will be edgy and exhilerating….and for sure it will ROCK!   NB: Given the intimate and unusual location ticket numbers will be limited, so please book in advance if you can.

Here is The Vault performance programme in full.

Listen here for an Audio Trailer of The Furies;

See also from the TEDx Aldeburgh documentation;

Kathy Hinde‘s Piano Migrations

Jennifer Stumm‘s The Imperfect Instrument

Hannah Brock playing “Fight of the Typhoon” on the Chinese Guzheng

Encouraged by a blossoming interest in site-sensitive theatre (including recent adventures here by Punchdrunk and the Old Vic/Spacey in nearby tunnels) site managers at Waterloo Station have been increasingly open to suggestion regarding cultural interventions on the site. Enter Heritage Arts, who are curating a new Festival called THE VAULT. Producer Tim Wilson is putting together a dynamic programme and has issued a call for interested artists whose work might suit this context (see here for details).

With no power or light in The Furies’ lair, and sounds supplied only by the ghostly rumble of  passing trains, Vault 234 is atmospheric to say the least. We explored the 35m long chamber by the meagre lumins from our mobile phones, unsure what was underfoot. The Vault will be a challenge to rig out and inhabit, but in 8 weeks time the infrastructure will all be in place for what will be an exciting month’s event and an opportunity for Kindle to get a proper run at The Furies in front of fresh, unsuspecting audiences.

THE FURIES will perform at

THE VAULT Festival, Leake St., Waterloo, London SE1

Thursdays to Sundays, 9th til 26th February 2012 (details to be confirmed soon).

Kindle are currently taking bookings for next year’s tour, which kicks off with a 3-week run in London in February, details to be confirmed very soon. The succesful collaboration with Jewellery dept. at Birmingham City University is documented in this article.

Here are two accounts on the day’s events, from Matthew Linley, and Kathy Hinde, whose work Piano Migrations has left a lasting impression.

Matt captures the marshalling the toys in a rendition of “A Grand Occasion”;

The Modified Toy Orchestra perform at @tedxaldeburgh from matthewlinley on Vimeo.

With a limit of 20 mins per speaker, the TED timeslot will only permit a couple of numbers from the MTO, but we are excited to be contributing to the TEDx experience, having made the trip as audience last year.

One Sunday afternoon two walkers arrive in town in search of a rest and a well earned print.  They soon realise something is up: things look different – cars, shop-front, people’s clothes.  And what are these small boxes everyone is talking into? Yes, Graeme and Neil set out to walk the High Peak Trail on the 18 September 1973 and now find they may have taken the wrong turning off the old railway track.  So, begins a time-travelling performance-walk that takes you through the streets of Wirksworth.  Following the performers and listening to a specially written text and soundscore through earpieces, you will explore the many layers of history that are under your feet and etched in the buildings around you.  Bodies in Flight have performed their audio-walk in Nottingham, Bristol and Singapore to great acclaim, and now bring their unique focus to Wirksworth – inviting us to see the everyday afresh. 

Dream-Walk, by Bodies in Flight

Sunday 18th September 2011

Walks will start at 11:00, 12:00, 2:00pm, 3:00pm & 4:00pm;

Meet at the Parish Rooms, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Link to Wirksworth Festival Site and Box Office Info.

The Bawlly has always plied his trade in these parts. As a kid there’d be a sinister edgyness to his arrival. From a back garden you could never quite tell from which street he was calling and it was better to hide or run inside to avoid what felt like a dark presence. Part gypsy-traveller, part kiddy-catcher; grubby-faced, Dickensian ne’er-do-wells sitting atop an old wagon, drawn by a shaggy pit-hoss. In reality these strangers from another time and place were Black Country scrap metal-merchants, aboard a flat-bed truck, but they might as well have been from another country. Their 8mph street-wanderings clearly paid off. I have a vivid memory of dad running out of the house in his bare feet and ‘jamas to apprehend the Bawlly. Then watching, incredulous, as the back-half of a Mark One Mini was man-handled onto the truck, joining fridges, rusty garden swings and dug-up fragments of air-raid shelter.

This week, the sound of the Bawlly signifies the start of austere times. Summer is truly dead. Kids are back to school, the skies have turned grey and there’s a faint rustling of tumbleweed as a lean-looking Autumn stretches before me. A breather is welcome after a busy few months, but it’s now time to cast the net, seek new work opportunities and develop ideas for new projects.

In this pic, Jill’s character makes a heart-rending phone-call in a corner of the Courtyard…The Invisible Show II performs each day in Pleasance Courtyard until the 27th August. Performance times are 11.30am, 2pm and 4.30pm. The show lasts 50mins. Tickets can be booked here